6th grade benchmark advance

[Anonymous]

My son is struggling significantly with the 6th grade benchmark advance curriculum - particularly the critical thinking questions in the Knowledge Blueprint and the BuildReflectWrite sections. How much should I be worried about this? Is it an indicator that he is going to struggle even more in 7th grade language arts?

[Anonymous]

You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader complains about benchmark too, but honestly more engaged. It seems more challenging in a good way, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

My 6th is also not doing great. It seems very rigid. Following to see what others are saying.

[Anonymous]

I think this is just demonstrating how dumbed down our children's language arts education has been up until now.

My 6th grader has been behind in reading and writing for several years now, and I was surprised that she is actually doing really well with the structure of Benchmark.

She does complain that they spend a LONG time on language arts every day, but she doesn't seem to complain about the actual content, I think it's nice that they have units of content that they are actually learning as opposed to previous years when it's just random unrelated passages and typing in Google slides.

I think the children starting early with Benchmark (K-2) and having it all through ES are going to end up being much stronger writers and readers than our current 6th graders. I can definitely see it in my 3rd grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 6th is also not doing great. It seems very rigid. Following to see what others are saying.

Recall everyone clamoring for text books?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th is also not doing great. It seems very rigid. Following to see what others are saying.

Recall everyone clamoring for text books?

Yes for subjects like math, science and social studies. Reading shouldn’t be a textbook. You need novels in reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

There is plenty of fiction in Benchmark. I think this is a big change and a hard adjustment though. Honestly, when I look at where we are politically right now, and how legions of uneducated citizens voted for an elimination of democracy in our country, I'm 100% ok with a little nonfiction and critical thinking for my 6th grader. She'll survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

+1 no insults necessary. My kid loves fiction, non fiction, sci, SS etc. benchmark is so boring and seems out of date. Queen Elizabeth ii was still alive when it was written!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

+1 no insults necessary. My kid loves fiction, non fiction, sci, SS etc. benchmark is so boring and seems out of date. Queen Elizabeth ii was still alive when it was written!

+1 this exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6th is also not doing great. It seems very rigid. Following to see what others are saying.

Recall everyone clamoring for text books?

Yes for subjects like math, science and social studies. Reading shouldn’t be a textbook. You need novels in reading.

In elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

I wasn't insulting your daughter, I was insulting the previous curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re not alone. My daughter is too and now has zero interest in reading. She also is scared to take English honors next year now. She and her peers absolutely hate Benchmark - it’s mostly nonfiction (think units about government and history) and so so boring.

It sounds like she's using to reading really easy dumbed down things and now that it's challenging, she doesn't like it. IME that's pretty typical of all kids who had a really easy time on something and then all of the sudden are challenged. I'm sure she's up to the challenge though, tell her the more time she spends on this now, the easier H English will be for her next year.

No not at all. Please don’t insult my daughter. She was used to reading fiction (novels) which she loves and now only gets nonfiction in this awful Benchmark program. They had to research a country’s government at one point. A lot of kids don’t like government or social studies because the topics are boring and dry.

Oh my daughter LOVED this unit! I'm sorry, but this is how kids learn important skills. The curriculum shouldn't be based on what the children like, it should be teaching them something. This unit was teaching children how to research something while also teaching them about governments at the same time. I don't understand why you think this is bad.